My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

First published: 1951

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Coming-of-age, crime, death, emotions, and love and romance

Time of work: The late nineteenth century

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: “The Bartons,” in Cornwall, England; and Villa Sangalletti, near Florence, Italy

Principal Characters:

• Philip Ashley, a naive young man who was reared by his cousin after his parents’ death
• Ambrose Ashley, his cousin, a wealthy landowner whose ill health forces him to seek the warmer climate of Italy
• Rachel Ashley, Ambrose’s mysterious bride, who may have poisoned him in order to obtain his fortune
• Signor Rainaldi, a sinister Italian whom Philip suspects of having been Rachel’s lover
• Nick Kendall, a Cornish neighbor who is also Philip’s godfather, a man of great common sense
• Louise Kendall, Nick’s daughter, a charming and lively girl
• Seecombe, the faithful retainer at the Ashleys’ Cornish estate

The Story

My Cousin Rachel closely resembles the traditional gothic novel in its setting and in many details of its plot. Yet any adolescent reader expecting to find in this novel the comfortable formula of the gothic will be disappointed. Its protagonist is not an orphaned young woman but the naive, impulsive, and ultimately disturbed young Philip Ashley, whose suspicions of his cousin’s enigmatic widow lead him to arrange the accident which results in her death. The twists and turns of the plot, as well as the isolated setting in a remote section of Cornwall, are indeed reminiscent of the gothic, but the author’s refusal to reveal the truth about Rachel’s character and motivation make this a disturbing book. Did she or did she not murder her husband? This question Daphne du Maurier steadfastly avoids answering. In fact, the author often indicated that even she was not certain of the true nature of the character she had created.

Philip Ashley’s childhood has been spent happily on a large Cornish estate under the guardianship of his cousin Ambrose. Their idyllic relationship is threatened by Ambrose’s increasingly poor health, which forces him to spend the winters in the warmer climate of Italy. During the third winter Philip is dismayed to learn of Ambrose’s friendship and eventual marriage to a distant relative, the Rachel of the novel’s title. News of the unexpected wedding is followed by more ominous reports of Ambrose’s rapidly declining health. By the time Philip decides to travel to Florence to investigate the situation, Ambrose has died under mysterious circumstances: Poison rather than the older man’s frail constitution may have been the cause of his death.

Rachel arrives in Cornwall unexpectedly only a few months before Philip’s twenty-fifth birthday, when he will inherit all Ambrose’s wealth. At first inclined to distrust her, Philip eventually invites Rachel into his home, where closer acquaintance leads him to change his opinion of her. Instead of viewing her as the sinister intruder who caused his cousin’s death, Philip comes to see her as a gentle, loving, misunderstood creature. He begins to fall in love. Even the warnings of his godfather Nick Kendall about Rachel’s extravagances are pushed aside as Philip makes plans to marry her himself.

This new relationship is threatened by the appearance of the sinister Signor Rainaldi, a friend (and possible former lover) of Rachel from Florence. It is finally destroyed by Philip’s discovery, in one of Ambrose’s old suits, of a letter that once again suggests that Rachel, rather than being a loving and devoted wife, is a scheming fortune hunter who will stop at nothing to obtain the Ashley fortune. Just as his suspicions seem finally confirmed by the discovery of detailed notes in Rachel’s handwriting about poisonous plants, Philip is once more jolted into uncertainty by a notice that Rachel is planning to leave the country and has returned the Ashley jewels he had given to her.

At the moment he decides his suspicions have been groundless, Philip realizes that it is too late to save Rachel from the accidental fall into which he has lured her. She dies in his arms, whispering her late husband’s name. Philip is left to live with his guilt and the realization that one can never truly understand another individual or escape from the consequences of one’s own actions.

Context

My Cousin Rachel is set firmly within the gothic tradition and within the context of du Maurier’s own work. Its wonderfully romantic and mysterious Cornish setting, which contrasts sharply with the malign and sinister Villa Sangalletti where Ambrose and Rachel Ashley spend the brief months of their marriage, calls to mind du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca (1938). Indeed, My Cousin Rachel can be seen as a mirror image of that novel. Rachel Ashley, enigmatic and scheming on one hand, gentle, loving, and misunderstood on the other, resembles the image of Rebecca de Winter. Philip Ashley’s inability to decipher the true nature of Rachel and the actual events that led to Ambrose’s death recalls the second Mrs. de Winter’s failure to discern the real character of her predecessor.

The plot of My Cousin Rachel, however, often seems contrived. There are too many coincidences, too many hidden letters with ambiguous meanings, too many last-minute revelations to make the novel truly satisfying. If du Maurier’s Rebecca is twentieth century gothic at its best, then My Cousin Rachel seems only a pale imitation. Its use of a male protagonist, however, and the complex nature of Rachel Ashley’s character make it more than pat formula and a worthwhile addition to the canon of adolescent literature.